PICKERING -- With youth unemployment in Durham on the rise, government funding is helping some local organizations try to curb the trend.

On Jan. 9, MP Corneliu Chisu announced $91,000 in funding for the Youth Education, Arts and Health Foundation (YEAH), which helps youth facing employment barriers by providing workshops that focus on life skills such as communication and decision making and connecting youth with local work placements.

"Our goal is to support young people in making good life decisions and achieving success," said Pauline Bennett, president of YEAH.

"This funding will help empower youth to make positive changes in their lives. Our community benefits when youth are engaged in programming such as life skills, employment and mentorship."

The funding is part of the federal government's larger Youth Employment Strategy, which provides about $300 million in funding annually through programs including Skills Link, Career Focus and Canada Summer Jobs, all aimed at helping youth break into the workforce.

"Many young people looking for work get used to the hard tune 'no experience, no job, no job, no experience.'" Mr. Chisu explained. "We need to break this cycle and help youth acquire life skills and ease their transition into the work force."

Whitby's Michael Barry, 20, finished high school last year and will be entering YEAH's Reaching Objectives Collaboratively program, where he will spend four weeks learning life skills such as financial independence and resume writing before embarking on a six-week work placement.

"I've found temporary work, but it was stuff that was just OK, nothing like a career, more just making money for now," Mr. Barry said.

"I hope this will help me learn how the real world works, how to be more of a corporate person and communicate with business types and be a good hire."

Statistics from the Durham Workforce Authority show youth unemployment in Oshawa, Whitby and Clarington rose as high as 25 per cent over September, October and November of 2012, putting it above the 23-per cent average in March 2010, at the height of the last recession. Statistics for the GTA area, which include Ajax and Pickering, were as high as 20 per cent for the same time period.

"In Ontario, youth unemployment is typically about 2.5 times the general unemployment rate," said Paige Marlow, a researcher with the DWA.

"In Durham it's normally three times the general rate, and in November 2012 it was 4.5 times higher. That's higher than what we're normally seeing across the province.

At the YMCA Employment Resource Centre, counsellors assisted 1,528 students during the 2012 Summer Jobs Service program. Samantha Teney, general manager for Durham Employment and Community YMCA of Greater Toronto, says many youth are finding it hard to secure employment due to the flood of highly skilled workers looking for jobs.

"Because there are higher skilled individuals out there looking for employment, such as people who have been laid off from long-term positions, they are filling a lot of entry-level positions that would normally go to youth," Ms. Teney explained. "I think generally speaking there are just more people looking for jobs.

According to a TD Economics study from March 2012, young workers were hit especially hard by the recession, with more than half of the 430,000 jobs lost concentrated among those under 25, despite the fact those workers made up only 16.5 per cent of the total labour force.

Recovery for the demographic has also been exceptionally harsh, with only 1,300 jobs added over the last two and a half years, compared to current employment for those over 25 sitting at 400,000 jobs above recession levels.

Some of the $91,00 going to YEAH will be used to fund wage subsidies for employers hiring youth workers, a method that is also used by the YMCA.

"I think employers are definitely encouraged by wage subsidies, especially if they're not sure about hiring someone who maybe doesn't have a lot of experience, because then they have help funding their training," Ms. Teney explained.

She recommends youth looking for work take advantage of all the resources available to them in the community, such as government-funded employment programs like those at YEAH and the YMCA.

"If people connect with employment agencies in the area, they'll find there are employers looking for people," she said. "People should seek out all help available to them."